Karl Marx's writings have significantly influenced the course of international politics and culture since the 1840s. Together with Friedrich Engels he defined the concepts of scientific socialism, thereby contributing to the wide range of social theories that were developed in the nineteenth century. The popularization of these concepts has led to the application of its principles in the sciences and humanities, where it is known today as Marxism or, most recently, as neo-Marxism.

Karl Heinrich Marx was born on 5 May 1818 in Trier to Heinrich Marx, a lawyer, and Henriette Preßburg, both of whose fathers came from generations of rabbis. Because Jews were excluded from public office in Prussia after 1815, Heinrich Marx had been baptized as a Protestant in 1816 or 1817. Karl Marx was baptized on 26 August 1824.

Marx studied philosophy, history, and law at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin from October 1835 to March 1841. Central to his studies...